[Marking 125 Years of the Nobel Prize] ⑤ The Frontiers of Future Science Where the Next Nobel Laureates Will Emerge

Quantum Science, Synthetic Biology, AI, and Fusion Energy
Nobel-Worthy Discoveries Have Already Begun
"New Questions" Matter More Than "Awardees"
The Next Decade of Science Unveiled by Future Nobel Prizes

Editor's Note125 years have passed since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. Science has transformed from an era of individual geniuses making discoveries to an age where thousands of people and artificial intelligence (AI) collaborate in research. The Asia Business Daily will examine, in a seven-part series marking the 125th anniversary of the Nobel Prize, how the agents and methods of scientific discovery have changed over time and to what extent the Nobel Prize reflects these developments.

Professor Sangyeop Lee, Distinguished Professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), is examining a microbial cultivation device in his laboratory. As a pioneer in systems metabolic engineering, Professor Lee recently emphasized that the combination of AI and synthetic biology is opening up new possibilities for scientific discovery and biotechnology. Photo provided by KAIST

In 1984, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States built a superconducting microcircuit to test whether quantum mechanical phenomena found in the microscopic world could emerge in macroscopic electrical circuits. Forty years later, in 2025, three of these scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of "macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy quantization in electrical circuits." The daring experiments of the 1980s thus became a foundational milestone for superconducting quantum information technology in the 21st century.

Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor at Yale University in the United States, defined an innovative discovery as "the act of opening up realms that could not have even been imagined the day before." She explains that it is for this reason that the future direction of the Nobel Prize cannot be easily predicted for specific individuals or fields. The world's transformative breakthroughs—such as transistors, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), and blue LEDs—could not have been wholly foreseen for their impact at the time of their introductions.

Among the fastest-changing frontiers in science today is the life sciences. While the 20th century was an era of 'discovery', unveiling the fundamental principles of life, the 21st century is becoming an age of 'design', in which we modify the functions of living organisms to suit our purposes. At the center of this trend is synthetic biology, which creates new capabilities by redesigning the genetic makeup and operating systems of living things.

Systems metabolic engineering, pioneered by Sangyeop Lee, Distinguished Professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), is a prime example of this shift. Systems metabolic engineering analyzes how microorganisms break down nutrients and produce substances, and then redesigns these pathways to create "cell factories" capable of producing valuable chemicals and fuels. By integrating AI, researchers can predict promising enzymes and metabolic pathways, validate these experimentally, and boost production efficiency. Professor Lee stated, "The convergence of AI and synthetic biology is opening up previously unseen possibilities," and added, "What matters most is how technology creates value for humanity."

AI itself is rapidly evolving into a principal driver of discovery. Following AlphaFold2's recognition in 2024, "self-driving labs," where AI and robots handle everything from hypothesis generation to experiment execution to data analysis, are emerging quickly. Quantum technology and nuclear fusion are also racing toward their respective breakthroughs. In quantum science, research is now shifting from simply observing phenomena in superconducting circuits to controlling error-prone qubits reliably and scaling up quantum systems.

For more than 70 years, fusion research has moved beyond just achieving basic reactions. The field now grapples with formidable challenges, such as maintaining stable plasma for long durations and developing materials that can withstand extreme heat and neutron bombardment, in pursuit of a new energy paradigm. If solutions to these core problems are found, they could herald major discoveries across physics and material science as a whole.

No one can say for certain who the next Nobel laureates will be, but the seeds of discovery may already be growing in some laboratory. Jeong Jinho, President of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, emphasized, "There are inherent limits to raising certain talents solely with the goal of winning the Nobel Prize," and continued, "We must nurture researchers who prompt valuable new questions that no one has yet considered, rather than those who merely rush to answer existing problems crafted by others."

High-temperature plasma generated inside Korea's superconducting fusion research device KSTAR. To realize fusion power generation, ultra-high-temperature plasma must be created so that fusion reactions similar to those inside the sun can occur, and this plasma must be stably maintained for a long time. KSTAR is a domestic fusion research device that studies plasma control technology. Provided by the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy

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